ommittee, some confusion has been created,
in the discussion of the form of so-called trust legislation, by a
failure to appreciate that its real object is not to protect the
investor, who can or should learn to take care of himself, or the
creditor who has already learned to do so. The real purpose of such
legislation is the protection of the consumer. In other words, there
is no reason for an arbitrary limitation of capitalization unless it
can be used as a means of creating a monopoly which will influence the
price of commodities. In the opinion of the committee, the question
of capitalization is not a contributing factor in the fight for a
monopoly. The United States Steel Company would have no greater and
no less a monopoly of the steel business if it were organized with
one-half of its present capitalization. The Standard Oil Company has
a very conservative capitalization, and yet it is the most complete
monopoly of any industrial corporation in this country.

It has not been the intention of the committee to draft a law which
will be favorable to the organization of large corporations popularly
known as "trusts." Inasmuch as the recommended law requires taxes to
be paid upon the full value of the corporate franchise, which is, at
least to some extent, measured by the amount of capitalization, there
will always be this very potent reason for keeping capitalization
at the lowest possible point. Indeed, it is apprehended that the
organization of a corporation large enough to control a monopoly of
any staple article is practically prohibited by the provisions of the
recommended law as to taxation, which will be referred to in greater
detail in part II of this report. At all events, it is no better for
the State to leave its citizens at the mercy of the large corporations
created by other less careful sovereignties, than to permit the
organization of corporations adequate to the demands of modern
business under its own laws, subject to its own more careful
regulation and control. Under our State and Federal system it is
practically impossible for any one State, by its own laws, to control
foreign corporations, but so far as possible at present the committee
has sought to subject them to the same safeguards of reasonable
publicity and accurate returns, both as to organization and annual
condition, as the State requires of its own corporations. The simple
requirement of an annual excise tax, based on the capitalization